Mice in the kids' sandbox
 

My kids have a 5'x5' sandbox holding 1,000 pounds of sand. It is covered but only to keep out rain, leaves, and larger animals. It's not fully sealed. Discovered last weekend that mice have been nesting in the box. Not for very long as it had only been 2 or 3 weeks since the kids last used it but the box is now contaminated with mouse droppings.

I don't do much baiting or trapping outdoors, just do my best to make the whole property less appealing (indoors, they die). I've planted a few peppermint oil diffusers in the box to keep them out (which worked for my BBQ grill).

Now I need to clean the sand. I'm thinking an oversized sifter made from window screen and 2x4's will do the trick. Any other ideas?

Even if you could effectively filter out the droppings, the sand is still contaminated by them and urine. If I thought that there was too much contamination then I would replace the sand; otherwise I wouldn’t worry about it. Let the lid off so sun can shine hard on the sandbox and let Mother Nature clean it up.

I can't be too OCD about this because I'm sure it will happen again. I'm not ready to replace the sand but I would like to filter the droppings out.